Blizzard finally made it official today during the BlizzCon opening ceremonies: Overwatch 2 is on the way.
Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan surprised the crowd with word that the new game will be playable at BlizzCon. In fact, the logos for the Overwatch PCs set up at the show all flipped over to the Overwatch 2 logo after the announcement—a very nice touch.
The new game will maintain all of the original heroes, maps, and modes, and will also feature a new 6v6 PvP mode called Push, in which two teams will race to make a robot push the map's objective to their opponent's. It will be available in Casual and Competitive modes, and will also be played in the Overwatch League.
But it will also feature "a ton of PvE content," including "a complete story experience," Kaplan said on stage. In Story Missions, players will take on the roles of Overwatch team members in four-player co-op missions against Omnic forces and "rising new threats around the globe." Hero Missions will offer a different type of co-op experience that will enable players to level up their characters and earn customization options that enable powerful new abilities, like changing Reinhardt's Fire Strike to ignite nearby enemies, or adding a chain reaction effect to Tracer's Pulse Bomb.
Unsurprisingly, Overwatch 2 will also see significant engine upgrades that will enable larger maps for co-op, as well as new enemies and factions, and even greater visual fidelity.
Take a look at some gameplay:
"Why a sequel? What does that mean to me as a player of the original game? Well, we thought about it, and for us as gamers, sequels make us nervous. So what we're hoping to do with Overwatch 2 is really redefine what a sequel means. I think some explanation is in order right now," Kaplan said on stage.
"For all original players of the current Overwatch game, you will get to play on all of the same maps as Overwatch 2 players, including all the brand new maps that are coming to Overwatch 2, and you'll get to play with all of the same heroes as Overwatch 2 players. It will be a shared multiplayer environment where no one gets left behind... We want to make sure that all Overwatch cosmetics come forward with you into Overwatch 2, so all your progress matters. Nothing lets left behind."
We'll update with more details about the new Overwatch as they become available: Kaplan said that a closer look at what's coming next will be shared tomorrow. Follow along with all our BlizzCon 2019 cover here, and check out some images down below.
